Watching the world of east London politics

Housekeeping rules

As the election for Tower Hamlets mayor enters its last nine days, the level of hostility is intensifying. This is being reflected in the quality and quantity of comments submitted to this blog.

I’m more than happy to host a debate, but anything touching on personal insults which are above and beyond the level of healthy, robust and even sometimes fraught political discourse will be removed.

I’m also receiving an increasing number of comments which make specific, unsubstantiated allegations of wrongdoing and illegality against named individuals. In practically all these cases, pseudonyms such as Richard, James, John, Andrew, Charlotte, Rachel, Alfred and Albert are being used by the commenter. If you want me as a journalist to take you seriously, then contact me directly by email – even anonymously if you prefer – and provide me with direct proof. I can then investigate, should that be necessary.

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6 Responses

Sorry Ted, I know its not relevant to this post but I get the feeling that you will not cover it before the elections so I am writing my comments about it anyway?

If Labour believes in fairness and accountability then why have they recently allowed Abbas to give further millions to the Rich Mix centre, which we all know is siphoning public money. If you visit Tower Hamlets council’s website and read the strategic development committee report for 2nd Aug 2010 point 8.1 you will find a report that talks about how the Rich Mix has been a failing project (total of £27m pumped into it) yet again recently under Abbas’s leadership and along with support from Cllr Denise Jones and Cllr Rachael Saunders gave it a further £2.5m, why? Possibly because Abbas has been told by his supreme commander Michael Keith and supported by the dodgy Rachel Saunders and Denise Jones, who are all on the board of the Rich Mix.

Sadly there are public sectors cuts and the possibility of council employees losing their jobs, but our wannabe mayor Abbas is diverting money into this losing concern. This is daylight robbery, and the amazing thing is Abbas is openly supporting it. He claims the council does not have a say in the money that comes from section 106 agreements and what it can do with it, we all know that is utter nonsense, because it is always drawn up in consultation with the council’s planning team.

FOUR OUT OF THE FIVE MAYORAL CANDIDATES ARE AGAINST GIVING ANY FURTHER MONEY TO RICH MIX, SO CAN ABBAS EXPLAIN TO US WHY HE IS SUPPORTING IT?

Ted’s blog – 3RD OF AUGUST 2010

At 5pm today, there were two Shoreditch-types sipping lattes in the cafe at the The Rich Mix arts centre in Bethnal Green. Another eight sat in the bar surfing their Apple Macs on the free Wi-Fi; not one of them had a drink.

Two hours later, a group of Labour’s Tower Hamlets councillors agreed to GIVE the centre £500,000 of our money to wipe out the losses it has accumulated over the past four years. Rich Mix, which cost £27m to build and millions more to run, had gone begging to the council. It said that without the cash it would have to close within two months. Senior council officers and the current Rich Mix management told tonight’s extremely controversial meeting of the strategic development committee that during its short life it had been run disastrously.

Pretty much throughout that time, its less than fully competent management board has been run by two people who are now trying to convince Labour party members they are capable of controlling billions of pounds of public budgets: Michael Keith in Tower Hamlets and Oona King for London.

I’ll try and find the time to give the full details and history of this scandal tomorrow, including the tale of an £850k loan the council had forgotten about, but in the meantime here’s some homework from The Times, which I’ve pasted below.

Make sure you are not biased and try to do a white-wash on the Rich Mix Centre! You were a much better reporter at the ELA but your standards are lowering day by day! Journalisms isn’t what it used to be!

Dear Ted, at the risk of your house broom sweeping this under the carpet, could you also report further on the Stepney Green tube incident? Will charges be brought? If so, against whom? There was a potential Tower Hamlets Mayor involved in the incident, Helal Abbas, besides Dan McCurry – a prolific user of your blog now that he cannot campaign for Abbas via Twitter or Facebook. Dan McCurry is also currently using your blog to make allegations about the “characters” of the councillors involved in the incident, which you have decided to leave on your blog. If this incident does result in a legal case, then all testimony of the participants, including that on [and cleansed] from your blog, could form part of the case? I don’t think we should look to Mr McCurry for legal advice on this one, although he tells us he is qualified.

“Ted”, sorry for not replying sooner, but I’m not a keyboard warrior like you, I work for a living. Rather than swallowing hook, line and sinker the reason given by the council how about some investigative journalism? May be the reason LAP meetings were “postponed” between 1 -8 October was so that Abbas Uddin could go out campaigning and avoid uncomfortable questions being asked by disaffected Labour members?